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Monthly Archives: February 2015

So I’ve (Cmdr. Snert) been playing Elite: Dangerous since Premimum Beta as a “Founding Member” last year. For those of you who don’t know the game, its the fourth sequel to the original Elite for BBC Micro released in 1984 and its brilliant; I originally started with Frontier Elite II on the AtariST.

Check out all the YouTube videos showing different stages of the game during testing and since its public release December 2014. There is the Flight Assist Off series showing various types of game play. Elite: Dangerous has an ever changing galaxy influenced by players actions, regardless whether you play open, private group, or solo (network connection required and half decent joystick; keyboard/mouse possible, but not easy).

Anyway. When you’re not playing space trucker, miner, bounty hunter, pirate, etc. there have been some activities arranged by Frontier and other players like @katerussell, such as Speed Docking and Sidewinder Demolition Derbie respectively.

I came up with a new activity, a cross between Speed Docking and Demolition Derbie, I call “Tapping“. Essentially you fly a Sidewinder (cheapest ship available), and position youself at 3Km from the portal of a Corilois station (or similar enclosed station), race inside, tap the back wall with your shields, and exit the station; landing request optional. Time starts from throttle up and finishes on throttle zero just outside the portal cage antenna. Mentioned it to @katerussell this morning and she thought the idea was “awesome”.

For those who don’t want to purchase Elite: Dangerous or still without decent Internet connection, there is an open source free single player Elite clone, Oolite, for Mac, Windows, and Linux. It has an add-on package system that allows you to customise the game, graphics, missions, etc. Its playable with a keyboard and/or gamepad.